Photographer Levon Parian 

by Joan Whitmore

It was a great treat to have Levon Parian as our speaker at our Oct 7th meeting.  Levon shared with us his recent project, iWitness, a photographic exhibit to highlight the Armenian Genocide by the Turks, which took place 1915 through 1918. 

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He photographed 80 survivors from the genocide who lived principally in Los Angeles. He and his team mounted a temporary photo installation in 2015 at Grand Park in Los Angeles. The event was highly publicized and kept the genocide issue in people’s minds. Among other activities, the families of survivors came to the installation to honor their ancestors.

Mr. Parian's slide presentation illustrated his outstanding professional career. Outside of Levon’s commercial work, his photographic techniques included but were not limited to multiple exposures, carbon printing, printing on metal plates, stereo photography, and digital manipulation. Water damage done to his family photos became a catalyst for his project “Lost Memories”.

Levon continues to experiment and shares his passion with his students at CSUN. He tells his students that their photos will communicate to a future generation.